Hounded
by Pointed Teeth
Summary: Kakashi has a difficult mission. He finds comfort in odd places. Gen.


Title: Hounded.

Rating: Mild R for violence and death. Also, weirdness.

Characters: Kakashi, Iruka.

Pairings: None. Gen fic.

Word Count: 2,867

Summery: Kakashi has a difficult mission. He finds comfort in odd places.

When the blow falls it slams into Kakashi's guard like a hammer. For a fraction of a heartbeat the copy-nin reels, fully expecting the bones of his forearms to splinter and warp around the guard's fist. But of course they don't, so he settles for stabbing her in the throat instead. She dies silently, vocal chords frozen by the jutsu he cast milliseconds into the fight.

Kakashi places her body neatly in the shadows and glides quietly down the dark hallway. His feet make the barest whisper of sound against the wooden floor, and he's careful not to drip blood on the varnished oak.

The house stretches out around him, a dark opulent palace of ancient polished wood and lush fabrics. A rich man's house. It is, appropriately, quiet as a crypt.

Kakashi freezes as the lines of the silencing jutsu he cast shiver and distort, striking out at another person. It's the maid. She startles at the alien brush of chakra against her own, and instantly bristles, dropping into a defensive crouch before sliding her back against the wall. Kakashi judges her to be a low level ninja – barely above a genin - but he's mildly impressed by the level of paranoia her presence shows.

Her death isn't in the contract so he nicks her with a poisoned senbon and leaves her to sleep it off in the laundry cupboard.

As he moves Kakashi teases out the smallest, finest tendril of chakra his control allows, and sends it snaking through the house, testing for traps and people. He brushes against the edge of five more life forces; the father and stepmother – both patterns heavy and snarled; untrained, asleep and close by, then – a shinobi, downstairs, pattern tightly coiled and controlled, but slow… asleep. A possible relay for the dead guard in the corridor? And there, up ahead, above and right, the smaller, simpler pattern of a sleeping animal – Kakashi smiles tightly under his mask – it feels like a dog, and a young one at that. Curled around the puppy is the bright, wild tangle of a child.

Target acquired.

Kakashi stills and quiets himself. Before he existed in the house, but now he blends with it.

He moves quickly, but carefully, following the hallway to the stairs and up to a small room crouched at the back of the top floor. The door is ajar and he slips through the opening like breath.

The room is dark, darker then the hallway with its dimmed lamps. The only light source is a slice of moonbeam that cuts through a narrow gap in the curtains. The bed is large for a child's bed, and the sheets are made of rich cloth.

Kakashi crouches by the door and casts out his chakra once more, searching for traps and nasty surprises. There's an alarm thread weaved into the edge of her mattress. It's shoddy work, a genin could break it. Kakashi disables it with a flick of chakra and smiles grimly at the Father's trust in unscrupulous ninja.

The girl in the bed mutters and rolls over. Kakashi listens to her breathing and frowns. She is not asleep and – he sighs inaudibly - she's facing him. Her eyes are half closed and sleepy – she can't see him, yet – but it's cursed inconvenient.

Kakashi notes her appearance absently and checks it by memory against the photograph he was given earlier. Young female, long straight dark hair, typical Rain-country facial structure. It's too dark to confirm the colour of her eyes. Right house. Right bedroom. Match.

Target confirmed.

Her pyjamas have a dragon on them. It's blue.

He stands and moves to the bedside with the intent of striking quickly. The moonlight catches his white armour briefly and glints. Kakashi side-steps out of the light, but the damage is done.

The target sees him. Kakashi watches the recognition flicker in her eyes. He tenses, ready to snap her neck if she screams-

The target sits up. Kakashi curls his fingers and taps a seal on the inside of his wrist, a senbon slides neatly into his grip.

She regards him with the large, serious eyes that all eight-year-olds possess. "You're a ninja, aren't you?" Her voice is pitched unusually low for a child, and slightly husky.

"Yes."

The target considers this. "Ninja kill people, don't they?"

"Yes."

She strokes the little mongrel's head gently. "Are you here to kill me?"

Kakashi stills. "Yes."

"Oh." She looks down at the sleeping puppy in her arms. "What about Miko?"

Kakashi slackens his grip on the senbon in his right hand. He doesn't want to snap it. "No. The dog is not in the contract."

The target smiles. She's missing her front two teeth. "That's good. Miko's just a puppy and I had to argue with Father to get him. I would be sad if he died."

Kakashi says nothing.

The target studies him. "Are you going to kill Father and Mother too?"

She calls her step-mother 'Mother', Kakashi notes. "No."

"Just me?"

Kakashi loosens his grip once more. "Yes."

"Oh." She looks at him steadily, and her pupils are huge in the dark. "Will it hurt?"

"No."

She nods, as though this is important information, but not vital. "What will it feel like?"

Kakashi thinks of the poison on the senbon tip. Best placed in the brainstem for maximum results, but the lungs, heart, and major arteries also yield similar effects- "It will be cold."

"But not hurt?"

Blue poison No. 16 – category: Delta5660. Neurotoxin. - numbs instantly, often the target doesn't feel it in the heat of battle. It shuts down the heart and breath in four seconds, brain function in ten- "No."

"Ninja-san?"

"Yes?"

"Do you like dogs?" Her fingers smooth through the mongrel's fur.

Kakashi breath catches for a moment. "Yes."

"Will you take Miko?"

Kakashi hesitates. "Why?"

The puppy twitches in his sleep. He is small, head no larger then Kakashi's palm. The corners of the target's mouth turn down. "Father hates him. He'll have him put down without me. Would you take him please? You don't have to keep him! Just take him to someone who'll look after him." Now she looks upset, cheeks flushing red and mouth twisting. Her voice is rising.

She looks like a child.

Kakashi shifts. "Your mother?"

The target shakes her head. Her hair, messy from the pillow, flies away from her face. "She listens to Father."

Kakashi nods once, curtly. "I will take him."

She smiles. Happy and bright. Pupils huge in the dark. "Thank you, Ninja-san." She strokes the mongrel's soft ear with her right hand.

Kakashi smiles. Kills her. The strike is textbook. She makes no sound; merely exhales and does not inhale.

Kakashi lies her corpse back down and covers it with her blanket. He places the contractor's message next to the target's head as instructed. He smoothes her hair away from her face.

The mongrel stirs as the covers move, legs trembling as he wakes. Kakashi touches a nerve cluster and places the small body into his satchel. He arranges the unconscious dog carefully so that it will not suffocate, and closes the bag. Its added weight is almost nothing, but he adjusts his stance carefully to compensate.

Kakashi leaves, undoing his jutsus as he goes. The chakra lights die in his mind as the jutsu does. The parents haven't stirred.

He reaches the edge of the grounds just as the moon sets. A few hours until dawn. Kakashi pauses on the border wall and looks back at the house. Nothing stirs. He nods and departs. Nothing but a blur heading for the distant forest. Providing nothing delays him, Kakashi thinks he'll be home just before midday.

Mission accomplished.

---

Iruka stretches, working the kinks out with a crackle of neck-bones. His morning classes have finished, and he has a whole hour to enjoy all to himself before the afternoon classes begin. Iruka thinks that if he were feeling particularly responsible today he would be going over his lesson plans, finishing up some marking or doing any of the hundred and one other things that devour a teacher's time if he isn't careful. But it's a nice day and he would much rather spend his lunch break actually enjoying his lunch then anything else.

Iruka teleports – it was lazy he knows, but the walk would take ten precious minutes from his break, and he wants to enjoy as much time as he can. He thinks of the park near the river. There is a specific tree with broad leafy branches that offers a wonderful view, so he aims for that-

-and winds up almost landing in someone's lap.

"A-apologies!" he yelps, leaping back and bowing hastily.

It is Kakashi. The copy-nin looks at him for a moment, nods and turns his attention back to the object in his arms. Iruka blinks when he realizes it's a puppy.

A new summon? Iruka decides it probably isn't, it bears none of the typical indicators of a ninja summon. He concentrates for a moment… the chakra feels like a normal animal's. Maybe a speck stronger then you'd expect in an animal so young, but nothing special. A pet perhaps? Unusual for a ninja, but not unheard of.

Iruka realises he's wasting his valued lunch-break wondering about the pet habits of strange Jounin. He shakes his head at his own folly, nods at Kakashi and vaults up into the tree to enjoy his lunch.

It's perfect, just like he expected.

After a while Iruka becomes aware of frantic barking that is severely disturbing his peace. He glances down through the leaves to see Kakashi's puppy leaping around in what can only be described as squiggly puppy joy. The copy-nin is shielded by an inconveniently placed branch, but from what Iruka can tell he doesn't seem to be moving.

Iruka frowns and leaps down, careful to snag the remains of his lunch as he jumps. He lands next to Kakashi, who doesn't stir.

"Kakashi-san?"

The copy-nin is definitely awake. He seems to be tracking the puppy's progress wearily. His visible eye flickers briefly to Iruka's face and then back to the dog. Iruka follows his line of sight – it's definitely a cute dog, but he doesn't think it's all that interesting.

"Kakashi-san, are you alright?" Iruka resists the urge to wave a hand in front of the Jounin's eyes.

Kakashi twitches, and then seems to come back to himself. His eye focuses on Iruka's face and crinkles as he smiles widely under his mask. "Ah, Iruka-sensei. Yes, I'm fine. I'm a little tired from running a long mission back from Lightning country – they needed to me to school all the young kunoichi in the arts of seduction and…"

Kakashi's voice trails away as the smile drains. The lie dissolves into nothing and his gaze slips sideways once more to fasten on the puppy. It is now lying on its back, apparently content to study its own – somewhat large – paws against the sky.

Kakashi looks tired, Iruka thinks. Tired and a little pale. A new bandage shows white through a rip in the shoulder of his ninja-blacks. He looks like he's fresh off a mission and hasn't bothered to change yet. Or sleep.

"I got a new dog." drawls Kakashi after a moment, as though Iruka is blind.

"I can see that," says Iruka dryly. "He's cute."

"Yeah." murmurs the copy-nin slowly, as if he's only just noticed. "He is."

Iruka is starting to feel as if there is something much more important going on then the simple acquisition of a new pet. But he'll be damned if he knows what it is.

He strikes out for sanity. "Uh, does he have a name?"

Kakashi hesitates. "Miko."

"That's nice." Iruka mutters lamely. He soldiers on. "Where'd you get him?"

"His owner's dead."

"Oh," Iruka sighs. He slouches down to sit next to the Jounin, leaning his back against the warm rough bark of the tree. "I'm sorry for the loss. Did you know them well?"

Kakashi leans his head against the tree trunk and presses the back of one hand to his covered eye, as if it pains him. "Not really," he whispers, and laughs a broken glass laugh. "I killed her."

Iruka blinks, confused. "For the dog?"

Even in the middle of whatever personal crisis he's dealing with, Kakashi is able to direct a remarkably blank stare at him. "No."

"Well, that's, that's… good." says Iruka, a bit helplessly. He struggles with the urge to voice platitudes for a moment, but thinks something obnoxiously cheerful is probably not going to cut it. Finally he settles on: "Why?"

Kakashi's free hand briefly flickers through the sign that means 'mission'.

Okay, well that's normal. Bring back souvenirs is a little off though. "And now you have the dog because…?"

Kakashi shrugs and slouches like he expects Iruka to yell at him, "She- ah, asked me to take him."

Iruka blinks. "You brought him back from The Land of _Lightning_?"

Kakashi shifts, "Not necessarily _Lightning _per se-"

"It's fine," Iruka interrupts, holding a hand up. "You don't need to lie to me. I don't want to know."

Miko chooses this moment to crawl over and flop awkwardly in Kakashi's lap, shoving his muzzle under the copy-nin's palm. Kakashi jumps and then cautiously cups the puppy's small head with one hand. When Miko appeared to have no objections Kakashi massages his scalp with gentle fingers, drawing a delighted series of tail thumps from the small creature.

Iruka glances at his watch and sighs inwardly; only thirteen minutes of freedom left. Of all trees he could have chosen, Kakashi had to choose Iruka's special lunch tree! It's universally unfair, that's what it is- Iruka banishes the uncharitable thought with a firm tug on his pony-tail. "So, do you intend to keep him?"

Kakashi rolls one shoulder in a loose shrug. "Maybe."

Iruka feels the silence closing around them once more and shifts uncomfortably. He doesn't even know Kakashi that well! Barring the frankly absurd tales Naruto bore him during the months Kakashi had been Team 7's Jounin. And that one slightly regrettable incident in front of the previous Hokage… Iruka feels his cheeks stain red with that particular memory.

On the other hand, Kakashi has chosen _his_ tree to have his moment of emotional whatever and Iruka is duty bound as a shinobi of Konoha to assist if he can.

On the third hand, Iruka is neither a mind-reader nor a soul-healer. He is just Iruka; Chuunin teacher of academy students, and he's way out of his depth and likely sinking.

Iruka sighs and tugs on his pony-tail, hoping for inspiration. He glances side-long at the copy-nin but the pale man's one visible eye is closed. Breathing shallow, but even. Is he _asleep_? "Kakashi-san?" he murmurs quietly.

Kakashi twitches and Miko yelps as he inadvertently squeezes the dog's head too tightly. The Jounin winces and sooths the hurt away with a touch of chakra and a gentle scruff before answering. "Hm?"

Iruka locks his eyes straight ahead and tries not to hear the awkward words falling from his mouth, "I was wondering- I mean I don't know but… would you maybe like to, to talk? It can help, sometimes." He just _knows_ his face is crimson up to the hairline.

Kakashi gives him an odd look.

"Right, well. I thought I'd offer…" mutters Iruka uncomfortably.

Kakashi's visible tired eye meets his for a moment, before twitching back to the dog in his lap. His shoulders slump the barest degree.

The teacher glances at his watch once more and sighs. "Kakashi-sensei," he begins, and then falters. What can he say? 'It was fun to land in the middle of your episode, try not to lose it entirely and smash things.'?

Subtle.

Iruka reaches out slowly and touches a gentle finger-tip to the Miko's head. He smiles when the puppy quakes with joy. The small animal is happy, almost deliriously so. "He's a handsome little fellow." says Iruka, quietly. "He'd not be out of place with that pack you travel in."

Kakashi tilts his face towards the sun, and closes his eye. "Hm. Perhaps."

Iruka gets to his feet and bows. "Kakashi." He says, not unkindly, and then teleports back to his classroom, leaving the Jounin alone under the tree.

---

Kakashi leans his head back against the warm back of the tree trunk and watches the sun reach the apex of its daily crescent. Tiredness drags at his bones. He might have slept at some point, but he isn't entirely sure. He spends the rest of the time in quiet thought while Miko slumbers in his lap, stroking his fingers gently through the puppy's fur and feeling the rise and fall of his small ribcage. The pulse of the small creature is only a little faster then his own.

_Ninja-san?_

After a while he moves the little creature gently to one side and splits his thumb with the point of a kunai to summon the pack.

_Yes?_

"Yo, brat. S'been a while."

_Do you like dogs?_

"Pakkun, this is Miko. Make him welcome; he's going to be joining us."

_Yes._


End file.
